Hong Kong, China: A Hong Kong bartender-turned-feng shui master who is fighting for the US$13 billion ($19 billion) estate of Nina Wang said in court Thursday that he and the eccentric tycoon burned money for fun.

On the second day of his testimony in the epic court battle over Wang’s will, Tony Chan denied having advised Wang to burn real banknotes in the special feng shui holes dug in several properties of the tycoon’s Chinachem empire.

“It was after June 1992, that the idea of digging those holes had become like a game between a married couple, between the two of us,” Chan told the packed court.

Chan, who has said he was Wang’s lover, added he had advised Wang to place pieces of jade in the holes for good luck.

Lawrence Lok, the lawyer for Chinachem, showed Chan a photo of one of the holes which showed a burnt green banknote.

Chan said he had never told Wang to burn real money as part of a feng shui ritual.

“But there was an occasion that I accompanied Nina to burn real money in a temple, 10-dollar notes,” he said, adding that the tycoon was doing it for fun after a boat trip together.

Hong Kong’s High Court will decide whether Wang, who at one stage was Asia’s richest woman, left her entire fortune to Chan when she died of cancer in 2007 aged 69.

Opposing Chan’s claim is Wang’s Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which is now controlled by her siblings, who say a will awarding Chan the huge fortune is a fake.

The case has filled the front pages of Hong Kong’s media for weeks, with its mixture of wealth, love affairs and feng shui, an ancient Chinese system of channeling energy which is popular in Hong Kong.